Its really funny how this blows up in the US, yet all the other Korean acts who have way better music and are trying to make it over here just fail terribly. I'm very sure its because other artists take a serious approach, where this song just sounds like 1,000 other vapid American "party" songs from the last few years, and the video is completely wacky and silly. Its because Americans can't take Asians seriously, but when the small, slant-eyed people are doing something that's outwardly different and wacky already, then its all hunky dory and we can all laugh at it and love it. This is why I am not particularly enthused about his success, because I feel the majority of it comes from more or less being laughed at by another culture. Kinda how the Japanese invite gaijins onto game shows to make complete asses of themselves so they can say "hey! look at the stupid white guy!"

SO glad I'm not the only one catching onto this. I hear people talking about this at work who have absolutely no interest in actually watching, hearing, or appreciating anything from another country, and the most telling part is the way they talk about it. They're basically talking down at it/about it in an indirect way, while saying they "love it."

Its really funny how this blows up in the US, yet all the other Korean acts who have way better music and are trying to make it over here just fail terribly. I'm very sure its because other artists take a serious approach, where this song just sounds like 1,000 other vapid American "party" songs from the last few years, and the video is completely wacky and silly. Its because Americans can't take Asians seriously, but when the small, slant-eyed people are doing something that's outwardly different and wacky already, then its all hunky dory and we can all laugh at it and love it. This is why I am not particularly enthused about his success, because I feel the majority of it comes from more or less being laughed at by another culture. Kinda how the Japanese invite gaijins onto game shows to make complete asses of themselves so they can say "hey! look at the stupid white guy!"

'merica.

As an aside to that, he falls into one of the "stereotypes" that are acceptable within Asians in Hollywood. If you're a woman, obviously you're the chick that the lead is going to sleep with and/or be some sort of temptress to the lead. If you're a man, you pretty much don't have anything role-wise unless you're chubby/fat and do physical comedy with a hint of stereotypes thrown in. (Ken Jeong is another recent example of this)

Very good point, that ties in really well. It doesn't just go for Asians either, since there's also always that set of a few people who fill the Mexican, German, Middle-Eastern, Russian, and British stereotypes in Hollywood movies or use the stereotypes to get popular off of TV shows or standup comedy, and the list goes on.

I was also kinda hoping the same thing, in a certain way, about him getting rich off all these assholes who are basically disrespecting him. Though, it also seems to me personally that you'd have to be a pretty strong and proud person to not be a disturbed by the fact that you got rich off of filling a stereotype to another country, haha. If it doesn't really bother him, that's fine, since a number of other foreign people in Hollywood seem to do OK with it, I guess.

Its really funny how this blows up in the US, yet all the other Korean acts who have way better music and are trying to make it over here just fail terribly. I'm very sure its because other artists take a serious approach, where this song just sounds like 1,000 other vapid American "party" songs from the last few years, and the video is completely wacky and silly. Its because Americans can't take Asians seriously, but when the small, slant-eyed people are doing something that's outwardly different and wacky already, then its all hunky dory and we can all laugh at it and love it. This is why I am not particularly enthused about his success, because I feel the majority of it comes from more or less being laughed at by another culture. Kinda how the Japanese invite gaijins onto game shows to make complete asses of themselves so they can say "hey! look at the stupid white guy!"

'merica.

~3 weeks ago when I went to see TDK Returns, we overheard a discussion of two girls about this song.It's not just north America.

I haven't seen his appearance, but I heard it was bad. Ellen was mean to him or something?

Maybe some of the fame is coming from a stereotypical Asian role, but isn't part of it the extremely viral nature of his video? It's not like he was trying to break into the US like so many other Asian acts who, if we remember, were trying to pump out the same modern American crap too. Their problem was that they only ever tried to appeal to Asians and weeaboos and never made major pushes into the mainstream. You have to be on the radio, you have to have tie-ins, you have to commit. BoA, Utada, Girls Generation, they all had the firm commitment of a wet fish and the music wasn't much to call home to. At least people want to hear Gangnam Style.

~3 weeks ago when I went to see TDK Returns, we overheard a discussion of two girls about this song.It's not just north America.

I know this mentality isn't even close to being exclusively American, but I believe we are the worst offenders.

Maybe some of the fame is coming from a stereotypical Asian role, but isn't part of it the extremely viral nature of his video? It's not like he was trying to break into the US like so many other Asian acts who, if we remember, were trying to pump out the same modern American crap too. Their problem was that they only ever tried to appeal to Asians and weeaboos and never made major pushes into the mainstream. You have to be on the radio, you have to have tie-ins, you have to commit. BoA, Utada, Girls Generation, they all had the firm commitment of a wet fish and the music wasn't much to call home to. At least people want to hear Gangnam Style.

That's the thing, is because the video is so viral, that's all that people really associate him with, period, is the image and the one song. The SONG is #1 on iTunes, but what about the rest of the album? What about the other 7 albums he has released or the ones he'll release in the future? They'll fall on deaf ears anywhere outside of Korea, just as they have before. This is what we call a fad, folks, and the nature of this particular one is just a little disturbing to me.

Also, with PSY and this song, as you said, it wasn't intentional popularity, therefore these overseas radio stations, TV stations, and tie-ins were contacting HIM to come over and do shit, because he had this stupid internet popularity behind him. Since these other artists' management were acting on their own volition and their own wish to "make it" in the US, they had to use their own money to BUY their way into what little TV and radio coverage they did get. As if it wasn't obvious enough to them already, hopefully this is turning on a light bulb for these Korean producers that the American music industry is just centered around payoffs for popularity, things that are only appreciated for novelty, and fads. These other artists took a legitimate, old-school, and more serious approach to trying to make it in a music industry, disregarding internet-popularity and wacky novelty as the backbone for their success, which is why they failed here and why PSY is unintentionally succeeding here.

Having frequented the Imgur's gallery pool, the average American is just viewing this as something new and interesting to fill their boring lives. Ooo look at the funny dance with the invisible horse! Also, when he was on the VMAs, many people were shocked that he even spoke English. I can see television hosts and news reporters doing the same thing, talking down to him and then he speaks back in nearly perfect unaccented English. I feel sort of embarrassed about it sometimes to be honest.

I know it's a long shot, but at least other countries, especially America are aware of Kpop and Jpop more so then they were before. I remember watching an episode of American Idol with my mother one night and one of the music producers was talking about the Korean guy that was singing on the show. He basically said that Asians are poised to take the world stage, they just need someone to lead them. Of course that guy bombed horribly, mainly because his accent was so thick. But if someone can come out of this, riding on the coattails of Psy's success, more power to them.

Psy's apparently going to be appearing on Saturday Night Live tonight, but it's still just a rumor. We'll see.

I haven't seen his appearance, but I heard it was bad. Ellen was mean to him or something?

Ohhh no no no. The only thing that was rude about it, as I've seen people complain, is that he had to take the initiative to introduce himself when he came out to the stage. Ellen seems to be totally in love with him, and Britney Spears doing the dance was amazing because they put their all into it.

Ellen even said something like "Oh, should Britney take off her heels?" And he said leaving them on was actually preferable, adding that his idea is "Dress classy, dance cheesy."

The SONG is #1 on iTunes, but what about the rest of the album? What about the other 7 albums he has released or the ones he'll release in the future? They'll fall on deaf ears anywhere outside of Korea, just as they have before. This is what we call a fad, folks, and the nature of this particular one is just a little disturbing to me.

Yeah, that's the nature of the one-hit-wonder. But he's got exposure right now and if he has actual staying power, he'll be able to keep some of the media attention. Look at Gotye. He's got two other albums and Making Mirrors is a great album, but all anyone wants to hear is Somebody That I Used To Know. I hope he doesn't fade away and I know I'll try to keep up with him, but he'll always be the Somebody guy. Granted, we aren't used to these sorts of talents being Asian and approachable. The music industry is sleazy and nasty and success is fleeting. They won't all be The Beatles.

I haven't seen his appearance, but I heard it was bad. Ellen was mean to him or something?

Ohhh no no no. The only thing that was rude about it, as I've seen people complain, is that he had to take the initiative to introduce himself when he came out to the stage. Ellen seems to be totally in love with him, and Britney Spears doing the dance was amazing because they put their all into it.

Ellen even said something like "Oh, should Britney take off her heels?" And he said leaving them on was actually preferable, adding that his idea is "Dress classy, dance cheesy."

I love that line.

It seemed like an innocent situation, like because Britney knew who he was, Ellen basically said, I have someone to teach you the dance, but she did say, "Psy, come on out".

I think the "can I introduce myself?" comment was more that he personally wanted to address the audience before they did the dance, not that he was expecting someone else to give him a grand intro first. If you watch it, notice that he says "can I introduce myself? not just dancing"

It's hard to tell, because his tone could have been interpreted as annoyed, but it might just be how he pronounced the words, like they just came out that way because he wanted to be heard clearly. I think he really just wanted a moment to speak to the crowd, no one would have automatically known this.

Kind of sad that there was no attempt at humor or comedy in that sketch. It just came off as a blatant way of capitalizing on the popularity of Gangnam Style to give SNL more viewers or video hits online.

I actually liked this song when it came out, before everyone on the planet listened to it (<- Even thought that window of time was short.)
Almost everyone at my school has listened to it and here's what they said, "It sounds like he's saying 'Broken condom style!'" and starts dancing to it and laughs.
MY response, "Your a fucking idiot! Pull your head out of your goddamn ass and stop acting like an retard."
If your not going to respect the song then don't listen to it.